Responsibility is graded. We publish the grade.
Every operator claims community benefit. Almost none of it is a figure, so none of it can be checked. Here is exactly what we do, what we refuse, and which journeys earn the claim.
The Definition
What responsible travel actually means
The term has been used so loosely it signals almost nothing. Here is the actual problem.
Tourism in India is not short of money. It is short of distribution. Most of what a traveller pays settles with airlines, hotels and intermediaries. The village that was the reason they came captures a small, undocumented share.
The places that draw people are least able to absorb them. A ritual for two hundred does not scale to two thousand. A community never asked whether it wants visitors is not consenting, it is coping.
Core Principles
Responsible travel, done seriously, is about three things:
who gets paid,
who decided, and
what it costs the place. Everything else is decoration.
Reconciled annually against community partnership agreements
Our framework
Three rings, each enforced differently.
We cannot claim the same standard across everything we sell. A journey we designed and a package we bought are not the same thing. So the framework is graded.
Everything we sell
Enforced through what we refuse to buy
Every journey carries a community return status. Every supplier signs a code of conduct. Any grievance is acknowledged within 48 hours.
Journeys we design
Enforced through how we build them
A mandatory briefing before anything sensitive. Enforced photography protocols, including camera-free journeys. Hard group caps. Where a community sets a lower limit, it stands.
Earth Collaborations
Enforced through contract and audit
60% minimum of the experience fee, paid within seven days. Community-authored, every practitioner named, withdrawal at any time with no penalty.
The exclusion list
What we will not sell, at any price.
The only part of a responsible travel policy that costs money to hold.
Animal exploitation attractions
Elephant riding, performing animals, any facility handling wildlife for entertainment.
Orphanage tourism
Visits to residential childcare, in any form, for any duration.
Human-safari tribal viewing
Drive-through visits, roadside photography, anything the community did not design.
Staged poverty tourism
Tours arranged for spectacle rather than by residents.
Contested access
Any site where consent is disputed or unclear.
The community return label
We state the number.
A rupee amount, the base it was calculated on, and the package total. Never a percentage floating on its own.
60% of the experience fee on Earth Collaborations, paid directly to host communities
Status Framework
How each status is verified
Verified 60%+
Earth Collaborations. 60% minimum of the experience fee, paid within seven days, community-signed quarterly and subject to annual audit.
Verified (Pending Booking)
Confirmed at booking before numbers are locked. No figure is shown until departure is confirmed.
Stated
Known and published, whatever it is. It might be 12%. If so, we print 12%.
Stated (Pending Contracting)
Confirmed at contracting. No number is shown before supplier rates are contracted.
Not disclosed by supplier
We do not know and will not guess. We say so instead.
Why we publish what is unknown
It would be easy to show only the journeys that look good. Publishing what we don't know is what makes the rest believable.
Working with communities
We onboard slowly, and properly.
Seven stages, months rather than weeks. Any partner can withdraw at any point, no penalty, no notice. It is in every agreement and cannot be waived.
First contact
An informal conversation with no commitment on either side.
Needs assessment
Led by the community. What they want from this, and what they do not.
Co-design
They set the length, the group size, and what is shown.
Consent and agreement
Formal approval from the council or cooperative, in writing.
Orientation
Host preparation, expectations, and how to say no to a traveller.
Pilot run
One small group, then a full review before anything is listed.
Live listing
Public, with quarterly review and standing withdrawal rights.
Not every community says yes
That is not a failure. They have lost nothing and gained a conversation about protecting their own cultural assets.
Carbon
A modest position, honestly held.
Offsets are standard on every journey we design, and opt-in on everything else. Domestic through Indian reforestation projects, international through Gold Standard or VCS.
We publish real uptake annually, including the years it is low. We do not claim a coverage percentage we cannot deliver.
What we measure
Numbers, when there are numbers.
We publish numbers when there are numbers. A dashboard of zeros is a marketing asset, not a measurement, and we would rather show you the method than a decorated blank.
On Earth Originals and Earth Collaborations sold directly, our primary measure is transformation rate — the share of travellers who report, thirty days after returning, that the journey changed how they see the world. Thirty days, because that tells you whether it survived the flight home.
Scoped honestly to direct-sold inventory. We do not claim to measure transformation on conference delegations or resold product.
If your community has something worth sharing, on its own terms.
We are particularly interested in partnerships across Northeast India, tribal belt communities in Central and Eastern India, and women-led cooperatives anywhere.
Direct partnership review with Foxpels operations team